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Without fighter escort, his attack bombers vulnerably underpowered and lacking in defensive armament, and forced by the unreliability of their own torpedoes to fly low and slow directly at their targets, all of the Hornet's torpedo planes soon fell to the undivided attention of the enemy's combat air patrol of Mitsubishi "Zero" fighters.
Circumstances lead to Starbuck and Kat flying as a pair on a Combat air patrol during which they encounter the ace Cylon Raider nicknamed Scar. Starbuck is the first to spot Scar, and comes close to trying to kill him in a suicidal head-on pass; at the last moment, she breaks away and lures Scar into Kat's line of fire.
After detecting a build-up of aircraft, on 1 April 1943 a fighter sweep of 58 Mitsubishi A6M3 Zeros of the 204th, 251st and 582st Kokutai was met by Allied fighters over the Russell Islands intercepting the Japanese en route to Tulagi and Guadalcanal, that claimed 18 Zeros at the cost of six Allied aircraft.